Laws for Alcohol and Driving in Bermuda

The legal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limit for driving in Bermuda is 0.08

If you get into a collision while driving over the legal limit of alcohol, your insurance will not cover you or your vehicle it will only cover the third party.

CADA is lobbying for roadside sobriety checkpoints to be adopted in Bermuda, these would operate as follows:

- The public is advised ahead of time that checkpoints will be taking place- The Police decide ahead of time that every <i></i>nth <i></i> vehicle will be stopped. (In other words, the Police decide ahead of time that every 10th vehicle, or every 20th vehicle, will be stopped)- The checkpoint begins and the Police stop every <i></i>nth<i></i> vehicle- The driver of each vehicle stopped is roadside breath tested- If the roadside breath test shows at or above a certain level of alcohol, the person is transported to the Police station or to the Police command vehcle, for the fully calibrated alcohol breathalyzer machine test- If the fully calibrated machine shows the persons alcohol level is above the legal limit for driving, the person is arrested for driving while impaired

Currently, under Bermuda’s laws, there are no provisions for the Bermuda Police Service to demand and take breath samples on the road. At CADA, we believe that roadside sobriety checkpoints should be implemented, to save the lives of our residents.

The results these checkpoints can achieve are, an awareness amongst the driving public that if they drink and then drive their apprehension is very likely, this creates a deterrent against drinking and driving, thus reducing the number of alcohol related collisions and deaths on our roads.

According to the OECD, Bermuda has one of the highest rates of road fatalities – 20 per 100,000. The OECD average is 9.6 per 100,000.

And we know that the vast majority of the road traffic deaths in Bermuda involve alcohol and or drugs.

Raising the awareness of sobriety checkpoints and how they work, and the results they can achieve, will, we hope, demystify the practice. We want to urge like-minded individuals and organizations to join us as we encourage the Bermuda Government to support and implement changes in the law to give the Bermuda Police Service the powers they need to institute roadside sobriety checkpoints.

CADA is not alone in our call for this. We have been in talks with the Bermuda Road Safety Council and the Bermuda Police Service who, in principle, support this goal. Our meetings with them will continue.